Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992 TAG: 9201270032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
YACHT-TAX REPEAL DEFENDED
President Bush's State of the Union address will lay out a program to "get America back working again," his chief of staff said Sunday as he defended a controversial proposal to eliminate the luxury tax on yachts.Samuel Skinner, who replaced John Sununu as the president's top aide late last year, said Bush's Tuesday night address and the budget he sends Congress on Wednesday will try to overcome a "wall of resistance" that's keeping the economy from reviving.
"The No. 1 issue is jobs and the economy. That is what we are going to be dealing with," Skinner said on ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley."
The president's package, much of which already has been revealed, will propose a middle class tax break in the form of an increase in the personal exemption for families and up to $5,000 as a tax credit for first-time home buyers.
It will also propose up to $50 billion in additional cuts in defense spending over the next five years, increased incentives for business investment and a 90-day moratorium on many new government regulations.
The election-year budget also has a host of increased spending measures in such popular areas as environmental cleanup, Head Start, space exploration and creation of new parks and recreation areas.
Officials confirmed that the Bush budget will propose eliminating a 10 percent tax on yachts costing more than $100,000. Some congressional sources said they expect the administration also will propose repealing a similar luxury tax on the purchase of airplanes.
The luxury tax, passed in 1990 as part of an effort to control huge budget deficits, also covers purchases of jewelry, furs and expensive automobiles.
Skinner defended the proposed repeal of the tax on yachts against criticism that it was a tax break for the rich. He said the tax - which was supposed to raise $145 million over five years - had cost thousands of jobs in the boat-building industry while generating little revenue for the government.
"What we've got to do is get America back working again. We've got to get government off America's back. And if that means a tax destroys an industry, we ought to look at it again," Skinner said.
The administration's economic growth package has been attacked both by liberal Democrats and conservatives in Bush's own Republican Party as being too timid to provide the confidence-boosting jolt a sick economy needs.